KSR - 2025-08-13- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Matt, Drew, and Shannon talk JMI's partnership with Kentucky and all the latest news.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday. August the 13th. I am Matt Jones. Here we are 13 days away from opening KS. Bar. We are 16 days. Is that 16? 19 days. No. 17 days from kickoff to.

college, Kentucky's college football season. Matt Jones, Drew Franklin, Shannon, the dude. We were sitting in here, by the sponsor by Clark's Puppet Shop, the 859-280-2-8287, A Vision Auto Glass Text Machine, 772-7-7-4, this edition is sponsored by the T.J. Smith's law office. You call T.J. I'll make them pay.

Just to give you a little behind the scenes. Everyone here is trying to make it look, this studio, look presentable for the NFL podcast. And it's, I don't know. First of all, I don't know who lit this room. This room was lit by somebody who's never been on a television screen at any point. They have the light Shannon right above our heads. They look to be white lights too, like the cool colored.

Like literally they make everyone's face look. Think about the worst version of yourself in the mirror. This seems to be designed to look like that. You know, in TV they teach you, keep the light in front of you, facing you a little bit like to make you flush. This is over our head behind us. We look like we're dead. And this was designed. This isn't even that old.

This was designed like this. This is the new studio. I do like that IHeart is putting more into us looking good than me and you put into ourselves actually looking good. What are you talking about? No, I use moisturizers. I did too. I got a little on. but I mean, they're really working hard

and here we are with our hoodies on. They're trying to fix what was the worst lit. I mean, I'm not going to say which one, but everybody knows there's a TV station in town that is one notch below the others. They try. They try like Ricky Steamboat. They try really hard.

They do the best they can. One thing that would help them is if they would like the thing correctly. Same thing here. This is terrible. But they're trying to fix it. Mario and the, Mario, and Nathan and Billy, they've got things hanging everywhere. But we really just need to tear this place down and start over, don't you think?

Yeah, this brand new building in downtown. I mean, Shannon, there's five TVs in here. Only one is even hooked up to the inner, like to cable or like four of these TVs have never been turned off. I see a black screen behind you right now, right behind your head. This thing can't get any channels. So it just reflects light. It's just terrible.

I've only seen this Roku screensaver fish tank to my left. that's ever on this table is Pat McAfee or that or that fish. I know these fish, I know their names. I know when they bounce off the corners. I'm just telling you, whoever designed this thing failed architecture school? Hopefully it gets fixed in the next two weeks. We have a lot to talk about. Let's start. First, before I get to the big news, Alan Cutler said you could kiss his ass, Shannon. And I think you, I think you have to respond to that because you're being called out to a fight by a 71-year-old man. Nor do I care. I'm currently suffering from a failure to give a damn about anything that Alan Cutler says now or ever again.

He said that you could kiss his A. He's getting really feisty. I mean, I don't care. Again, I don't care what Adam. Alan, Alan, Alan. His name is Adam. Adam. Adam Cutler says, I don't care. Yeah, I tried to listen to his thing. I listened to a couple of minutes and all I heard him was say that you were the worst and Drew was the best. and then direct post someone someone texts me and says Shannon you can kiss my ass

Drew I like you tremendously in one breath that's what he said I'm glad that he's got two listeners both you and Drew I just heard the first couple of minutes but anyway I thought that was funny

and I wanted you to be more to be upset I can tell I can see your face you are upset I'm not upset you might see him at an event soon maybe a game maybe you two will fight

you should invite him to the opening a KS bar he'll talk too much. We could not do that. It'd be like when Captain Sutton threatened me at that game. You remember that? I thought I was going to have to get between you two. He walked up to me at the Kentucky Louisville football game and he was like, so do you want a piece? And I was like, I've pie. I don't eat pie.

But, you know, then I walked away. I mean, give me somebody significant to say something bad about me, then I might care. That's what I'll tell Kirk Herbstree to give you a message. There you go. All right. So let's start with. what I mean I think is the most important piece of news. It broke during the show yesterday. And it's that UK and JMI have signed a 15-year deal for $465 million. Just start right there.

That's a lot of money. That's $30.3 million. Or no, $31 million a year. So that's a lot of money. you know, as one person explained to me, this takes care of our rev share. And so as you're sitting here and you're balancing the pros and the cons, start with the pro. The rev share is now paid for. By the way, what I would say is when I start hearing UK raise other prices because of the rev share,

I want you to remember that one of the things that was explained to me yesterday is the rev share is now paid for. So as costs of other things go up, remember, the rem share is paid for by this. Just something to think about. That's good. But I do think this is going to be an extremely important change for the future of UK sports. And I sort of spent the last 24 hours kind of in my mind weighing the pros and the cons. And I tend to come out of it pessimistic. not that I think the apocalypse is coming,

not that I think it's the worst thing ever, but I'm pessimistic and I will explain to you why I'm pessimistic. Now, you can be pessimistic and it's still things can be good. I was pessimistic about Mitch Barnhart leading us into the NIL era. And while it was a slow start, I think he finished pretty well. But I'm pessimistic about this for a number of reasons. But let me first explain to you what has happened. So JMI is now in charge.

of two important things. One is they are now in charge of doing the quote-unquote contracts for the athletes. Now, what does that mean? Of the $20.6 million, every coach will be given a certain amount of money that they are able to divvy up, let's say. So let's say that Mark Stoops is told you will have $15 million. dollars. Mark Stoops and the people on his staff, and that will include, I think it includes like a football gym, decide how they're going to spend that $15 million. You know, it's up to them, and they can decide who's worth what.

But let's say they decide Drew Franklin is worth $1 million. Drew Franklin may be demanding $2 million. That's where JMI will come in and have to. negotiate that other million. As a practical phase, I would just say to people, this will come up with every good player. I actually think this JMI thing is going to be bigger for basketball than football because it will be the basketball players that will demand more money than what the Rev

share gives. Does that make sense? I think most football players, what they get in the rev share will be their primary source of money for basketball. So I kind of see JMI as now being like 80% of a basketball. By the way, that's what Club Blue was. Club Blue did most of their work in basketball. They did a little football, but it was mostly basketball.

So I think what JMI is going to be doing is mostly basketball, which is why I'm a little nervous. So that's part one of their job. The second part of their job is when they get these guys, let's say they need a million dollars. They're going to have to co-come up with it. Now, I was very worried yesterday that JMI was essentially locking these players in, that if you signed with UK, you couldn't do your own outside deals. I'm told that's not the case.

So that makes me feel better. That was a big concern. That was my big concern. One of my big concerns. That makes me feel better. There will still be some athletes who will have the ability to do their own thing. That's good. But it's still going to ultimately be JMI's responsibilities to negotiate the deals and,

to go and find the money. Here's why that concerns me. And this is hard of me to talk about because JMI works with our station. I come on after the postgame show. But if you go through history here, JMI and UK have a relationship that is very unique. JMI only does the media rights for three major schools, Kentucky, Notre Dame, and UCLA.

They have a lot of small schools, but they're the only ones they do the major schools for. They work with a couple of other schools that name in their stadiums and stuff, but when it comes to being the primary media sponsor for a college, it's just UK, Notre Dame, and UCLA. Guess how many schools JMI is taking on the role of being the NIL group for? None. We're the only one.

We're the only one. We are the only school in the country that will have in a relationship like this with JMI. Is that going to work? We'll see. How many schools are doing this period? Well, Learfield, that's who does the broadcasting for Louisville. They have a lot of schools.

They've got like 50. How many schools are they doing it for? Three. Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas. Now those are pretty good schools. Learfield is taking on this role JMI is with those schools. But what worries me is, A, Learfield's good. And B, those schools are still keeping their private collectives.

We are the only school that I can find who is getting rid of their private collective and giving it all to one company and we're giving it to one company who doesn't have any other schools. So the caller who worried, well, what if it's UK or UCLA? How do they decide? UCLA's still doing their own thing. they're not letting JMI do it. So that's a lot of faith in one company. Wouldn't you agree?

Oh, yeah. Let's say it was the best company in the world. That's a lot of faith. I have had a complaint for a long time. If you've listened to the show, you know it's not unique. I've had a complaint that I don't think JMI is up to date on everything. All you got to do is listen to the post game show. You know, privately, they banned Drew from coming on the field.

They didn't credential, like they were a big part of Mario not getting credential. These are little things about KSR. But how do you look at today's modern world and go, the social media creator for the biggest website shouldn't have a media credential? You do it by being behind the times. Right. I worry is this company that still sends us cease and desist letters for putting on KSR, UK plays Old Miss,

and using the UK logo, is this the company that's going to understand modern NIL deals? I worry about it. We travel to all kinds of schools across the country. Let me be very clear about this. And I said this to someone at UK yesterday, so I'm not talking out of school. UK, of all the schools I've visited in the major conferences,

is more behind on modern, media dealing with modern media than any other school that we deal with. When it comes to media relations, UK gives less access to us than even the schools that we're the road team for. I can go to Tennessee and I can go to Louisville and they'll give me more access than when I'm in Rupp Arena. Now, why should you care about that? You probably shouldn't, except the people that were making those decisions are now making all the decisions.

As I said on social media, UK athletics is now JMI, and JMI is now U.K. athletics. Will it work? I hope so. I wrote the CEO or the CEO of JMI, and I said, hey, would you like to talk this week? She said yes. So I will do that. And I will recommend what I think and she can feel free to ignore it or whatever. But I'm concerned because the thing that has always been the best to me about UK sports is obviously the games.

But we've been pretty good at the business side of things. Wouldn't you agree? And in this NIL era, by having the people that they were doing the contracts before, I think we had pretty smart people doing it. The weakness has always been, to me, the modernization to the new world of media. Well, now the people that were in charge of that are in charge of everything. And that worries me. Is it fixable?

Sure. Are there smart people there? Sure. Are there nice people there? Sure. But we are giving what I think is the hardest thing for us. a basketball and football program to do. Recruit players.

That's the hardest thing to do. We are now essentially turning a huge part of that over to a private company. And it worries me. It would worry me if I was a Learfield school. And it probably worries them too because they're still keeping their private collectives.

But we now have no fallback plan. If JMI is not good, we're not going to get players. If they are, maybe it still will work. I can tell you, I had multiple people write me from other schools and go, you should be a little worried about this. I'm talking coaches from like other SEC schools. I think it's nerve wracking.

Now, they're going to get a ton of money. I'm going to guess UK's going to get more money from their local media deal than probably any school in the country. That's good. some of the worries we've had about are we going to have the revenue to compete? That's probably taken care of. So that's good. But are we going to be able to be in a world where the rules drew can change overnight? We are locked into a 15-year deal with JMI.

And the one thing I've always worried about them is, are they modern? That's where I am on. That's my concern. That's my, I don't say frustration, but that's my worry. And I'll finish with this. I use this example. This is just in the realm of media, but listen to the example I'm using and then move it to recruiting. The Kentucky Derby this year invited 50 TikTok influencers to come and have all access to the Derby.

Why did they do it? because it's the future. New and younger audience. Drew and I are being invited to go to the Super Bowl, the NFL playoffs, the combine, the draft, all of that with access from the NFL. Right? Schools like an old miss, et cetera, their media is allowed to go to practice. What happens at Kentucky right now?

we couldn't get Mario a credential. Drew has to stand outside instead of being on Rupp Arena. No media gets to see anything. I look at how these other schools are adapting to the modernization of the world, and I think UK is far behind. Now that's going to be everything. It's not just going to be media. It's going to be recruiting.

It's going to be fan interaction. It's going to be tickets. I don't know how you can't be a little bit nervous about that. 859-280-2287. We'll take a break. Be right back. KSR. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

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You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is that what you say to Alan? That's right. The fact of the kiss is, is it a filter or no filter involved? Do I get a filter at least?

I'll let you have a filter. We don't need any diseases being passed back and forth. What person writes, Matt? Okay, a lot of that sounds bad. Most positive thing. The money. It's a lot of money. Huge.

A lot of money. Probably takes away one of the, if not the biggest concern going into the NIL era, which is do you have the money to compete? UK now has the money to compete. At least they have the rev share portion. Whether they have the donor portion, we'll wait and see. But they have the rev share portion. So that's a positive.

Another person says, Matt, sounds like your relationship with UK is broken. and they're done with KSR. I don't think that's necessarily true. My relationship, our relationship with UK has been good. Our relationship with JMI has been bad. UK has been pretty good to us over the years. But on the media side, they had to do what JMI said, and that has generally been bad.

I'm hoping it's better. I'm glad they're going to meet with me. But it's not about us. I'm just using us as an example to show you problems that I think are going to happen with things that have nothing to do with us. us. So let me just give you one theoretical problem, and I promise I'm going to let Drew talk because Drew has set there silent. No, it's good. I could have slept in. I'm recruiting Mario, okay, for basketball. Let's say that. And it's down to Kentucky and Yukon.

Yukon has come in and said, we are going to give you three and a half million dollars of our rev share money because we can do that because we ain't spending any money on football. and Kentucky comes in and they just can't give three and a half, but they can give two and say, we'll get you the other one and a half through NIL deals. Okay. JMI goes out. JMI is only allowed to negotiate deals with UK official partners.

How much can you ask of Drake's and Paul Miller Ford? At some point, though, they're not going to be able to keep doing it. And if we don't have a private NIL group, a collective to do it, what's going to happen? We're probably going to lose Mario, right? Because we're making it to where only one entity can officially do it, and they can only work with the partners they have. So where are we getting this money? which means while everybody else has their private collectives that are coming together, we're still trying to go through a corporate structure that by its very nature limits the amount of people that it can talk to.

How much money can you ask from Morgan and Morgan? And then, let's say the school needs money for a soccer stadium, but we want to get Mario the player. It's the same entity drawing money for both of them. of them. That's a problem, in my opinion. And if it was such a great idea, why is no other school doing it? And why are the schools that are doing it with Learfield giving themselves an out by keeping their private collectives? I think that's a fair worry, Dr. Absolutely. And it comes at a time where everyone saw, certainly on the basketball side, where the previous model they just belled, put together one of the best

rosters in the country. There was never more confidence in U.K.'s NIL operations than this spring when Pope was out there navigating the portal, bringing players back. So right when you think, all right, maybe we've got this thing figured out in Kentucky's going to be rolling. You hand it over to JMI and it's back to,

well, I mean, we hope they can pull it off. And if they do it, we'll work out having it in-house. But, I mean, people, as you've said, fans, not a high approval rating for them on media as it is, and now you're giving them control of everything. I won't bore you with the legalities. But the other thing about this deal is it assumes Congress is going to pass legislation.

If Congress passes legislation, this can work. If they don't, it won't. Who has faith in Congress? Shannon, is that you with your hand up? No, I don't have my hand up. Well, I think this deal, if Congress doesn't pass something, just doesn't work. All right. I won't do this the whole show. We'll take calls right for this. KS.R.

T.J. Smith, personal injury attorney. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. That's what you do have to have. You're exactly right about that. Yeah. Thanks a lot of faith. You know what, though? Might work. One person writes, Matt, that is why your complaints are why JMI doesn't want to deal with you.

Maybe if you would be more positive, things would be better. I'm sure it would. But like, if you just want the official word, just read the press release. you know i mean when the when when when the white house issues a statement do you think that's the whole truth no matter who the president is no it's what they read the white house official statement and go well that's the proof that's all i needed all right next next topic it's what they want you to hear Andy Bashir tell me what you think well i'm good like you got to have critical thinking skills and this show is just me telling you my opinion, you can feel free to disagree.

But if you want the official word, I believe there are shows that do that. And they'll come on. And then you can, you, you can make that decision. But the goal, the goal is to, to get some understanding. 859-280, 2287. Last thing. Are you, are you like overall? Are you more positive about it than I am?

The JMI situation? Yeah. No, I'm more positive than I was yesterday when I learned that they can still get some outsides. That was my probably biggest concern because right now, more than ever, you're looking at a Stokes from Kentucky who's one of those dudes that you really want to go out and get. And if they were to miss out on him because J.M.I is still figuring out what they're doing. I think that'd be an issue. But the fact that they can still step out gives me a little more optimism than yesterday, but overall I still don't have a ton of faith. Stokes will be their first test.

I'm glad that's a good way to put it. Stokes will be their first test. And it's not just on them. I mean, Mark Pope might not be able to get Stokes or Stokes might just want to go somewhere else. Like, I'm not saying one player says the whole thing. But the first test of can you create a deal that makes it to where Stokes wants you to,

makes it to wear a player. Stokes will be the first test of that. I don't think it definitively answers the question either way, but I think it's a good, I think that's a really good point. I think it's a good initial. Yeah. And he could choose the other schools. He could.

And he could pick us and it's still a problem, but I think it's a good first test. The worst case scenario is he goes somewhere else and we get quotes like they just couldn't meet my number or something like that. That would be bad. Then that's where our concerns are getting very serious. Because money is not an excuse anymore on the rev share piece because we've got it. The excuse now is can you make it work? And you know what?

If they would just hire all the club blue people and bring them to JMI, then I'd be like, we're good. But those people don't want to do that, and so they're not going to. So we'll see. All right, we got people on the phone. I want to talk about some interesting things as well, but let's go to a couple of these people on the phone. Justin, go ahead, Justin. Yes. Media Day Stoop said that he doesn't believe that Kentucky football is going to be behind from the rest of the team's football teams and the revenue sharing. Is the JMI deal, is that part of why he seems so confident that we're not going to be behind in football? I can't speak for him, but here's why I think he would say to that question.

I appreciate the call. I think he believes that when it's all said and done, he will get enough money from the rev share to put a really, like, he'll be able to have as much as everybody else in the official money. And I think they believe, like, let's just use some numbers. There were estimations that last year, schools in the SEC, spent about $20 million on football. I've heard UK football last year spent about $5 million.

I bet that number's higher, but if you ask the UK people, they say five. I think that's low. But regardless, there was a huge gap. I think now they would say, okay, Georgia might spend 20, three, but we'll have 70. And we got a shot then. So I think that, I still think there's going to be a gap. but the gap's not going to be as wide. It's going to be like,

it's the difference between in baseball. The Dodgers spend the most, but you know what? Like the Cubs still spend a lot. But now the Pirates don't spend anything. Right. And I think they thought we were kind of the pirates and now maybe we're the Cubs.

Is that fair? Yeah. I don't think like Stoops was towing the company line and being a, yeah, yeah, it's great. Because he doesn't have a very good poker face. I don't think after coming for a years. And he seemed very genuine in that. No, we're in a great spot.

I like what we have. It wasn't like Barnhart whispered to him on his way to do the interview. You know, tell him we're good. One thing Stoops and I share is that we can't fake it, right? We can't fake it. And he doesn't fake it. And so I agree with you. I think he genuinely thinks that or he wouldn't have said that.

John, go ahead, John. Hey, I have a question, but before I ask it, I think JMI is always a fun killer. I mean, I remember times when Stephen Johnson was playing and they had the, you guys did the face mask and they took them away because it basically wasn't their idea. I just think that anything that's fun and upcoming and that it's for the fans, unless it's their idea and they want to make money on it, they're not going to be on board for it. 100% totally accurate. You hit. Second thing.

They have had the view, and this is going to have to change. But they have had the view if they didn't come up with it. and it's not, and they're not getting money for it, it can't be done. That opinion has to change. I expressed that yesterday to some folks. I'm going to express it when I talked to him later in the week. You cannot be the hall monitor. And to use a political example, Donald Trump drives me crazy.

But one of the things he's successful at is he comes off as being fun. Democrats in the last election came off as being the hall monitor. people don't like the hall monitor jMI has been the hall monitor they got to stop being the hall monitor i totally agree go ahead to your second point the question i have is now that jmi has the rights and it's ukk does that mean that when players do nil deals we can actually make them look like true nil deals nothing is a joke more when you have like trent no one that's doing a double quick commercial and they say hey i got a blue russell branded t-shirt that says basketball players They can now only do it.

At least now can they use. Only if it's with an official. Okay, I appreciate the call. I've given you three times. Only if it's an official JMI partner. So Trent Noah can do a deal. But unless it's with an official JMI partner, he still can't wear the jersey.

I think that's a mistake. But that's what this is going to be. So if he wants to do a deal with a restaurant that doesn't pay money to UK, he'll have to wear the generic t-shirt. I mean, that's just where if you look at, if they have other options at every other school, you're automatically limiting yourself. I mean, even if you believe J.M.I. can pull it off.

They do have one hand behind their back. If that's the approach and other schools aren't doing that. And those people that are the official partners, I just, you do wonder how much money did that? How much money can Paul Miller pay? Right. I can only get Malone so many take out so many times. Yeah.

And during a lot of our, like, conflicts with JMI, I looked into how much it would cost for us to have something with them. I mean, it was astounding. And so, like, if you just keep going to those people and going, all right, pay for this. I mean, there does come a point where you just go, how much, you know, how much do you want me to spend? Noah, go ahead, Noah. Hey, Matt, I've got a question for you guys. Go for it. So with all this talk of, yeah, so all this talk of movies that you guys have for this week,

I've been thinking from what that if you could have Hollywood make a biopic off of a historical figure from say like from the past 50 to 100 years and if you could have any historical figure and I want to know who it would be

and who you would cast to have them. I have my answer I give it now or after you guys answer. Go for it. What's yours while I'm thinking? It's a very random one which I know it would never happen

because he's actually not an actor but I was thinking from before Joe Burrow as Billy Graham look it up some like comparison. I can see it. I can see it. Wait a minute. You could see Joe Burrow as the minister, Billy Graham?

Yeah. Appreciate the call. Like I said, he's got an actor. I'm going to look at that. Shannon, are you saying Joe Burrow looks like Billy Graham? I'm saying I can see him pull that off. I can see that. I can't even fathom how Joe Burrow looks like Billy Graham.

I've pulled up an older picture of Billy Graham. I don't know. I can't. I don't know. I only remember Billy Graham as being old. So it's hard for me to look. Can you see that? I don't know if you can see that there. Oh, somebody's already done this? Yeah. That's why that's why I say that I can see that because I have seen it. Okay. This is a thing that has been going around on the internet. Okay. In that picture. Yeah. He kind of looks like them. I mean, maybe. I guess. That's interesting. I still think we have better options in the casting room there.

I actually think a bio of Billy Graham would be, I mean, Billy Graham would be. I mean, Billy Graham is like one of the people that I really revere and think like lived from what I know exactly as you would want a Christian to live. People who've had interesting lives. Huey Long had a really interesting life, the former governor of Louisiana who was ran for president. He was shot. You know, all the king's men was based on him, but it's fictionalized. So I would like to see, I'd love to see like a really good movie about Bobby Kennedy. There was a movie.

I don't think it was very good. The younger one, not the kook that's in office right now. What about you? You got one? Chris Farley. Boy, that would be so hard on that actor. Daniel Day Lewis. Chris Farley, though.

No, no, no, no. They'll make a movie about Chris Farley one day and it'll be, like, that's a really good pick. Why is it escape me? He's one of my favorite actors. American Psycho. Christian Bale. Christian Bale as Chris Farley. Well, if you had told me he could play Dick Cheney, I would have said no way. And then he did.

He does it all. Yeah. You see him in the new Madden? Oh, yeah, yeah. How about Baby Billy and Billy Graham? Can you see that? I definitely can see that. I definitely could see baby Bill.

Interesting. I'm going to have to think about, though, is somebody like who's somebody's life that is from the last hundred years that is fascinating. enough all the way around that I would want to see I would want to see a movie he was not a good person I think but I think a movie about

George Wallace the Alabama governor would be interesting because he was like one of the leading segregationists and then at the end of his life he flipped and he thought everything he had done was wrong and it would be interesting to watch his progression you know what I mean

he was the guy blocking the schoolhouse in Tuscaloosa from people people becoming and then later in his life there were interviews where he expressed like cried about how he had wasted his life doing these bad things I think that would be interesting anyway or from Chris Farley or Chris Farley yeah commonwealth causes bourbon lovers you don't want to miss out Thursday August 28th my birthday a $20,000 lineup of bourbon well or millennium you also have the six bottle set Blanton's eight bottle set, club blue four bottle set.

Those are going to be rare now. Go to commonwealthcauses.com. Commonwealthcauses.org and enter, I actually think this raffle, you get those club blues. That might be a collector. Collector's items someday. Commonwealthcauses.org for the final, well, I don't know if it's fine. But for the August raffle, August 28th,

that Commonwealth Causes. We'll take a break. Be right back. Kentucky Sports Radio. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through

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Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back, Tech Sports Radio. A lot of people, I guess, kind of agree on the Billy Graham thing. I can, I mean, I guess, I don't know, was Joe Burrow a good actor? Probably not.

He's a football player. Billy Graham was like, I mean, when I was a kid, like my mom, like a door, what's, my mom and Larry go to this place called the Cove, I think, which was like his place. They used to go there all the time. And it was all the Billy Graham, Billy Graham. he was on TV a lot too when I was a kid but not like in the Jerry Falwell way like it seemed like he was actually doing good yeah speaking to your mom it's uh I'm now in a group text with you your mom that's fun I got me and my mom and Drew just group texting shit you know just just sending each other sending each other text a new taco bell and Pineville yeah new Taco Bell

and Pineville it is some big news so Jason goes maybe they'd like KSR better UK if you all would pony up and give to the program have to respect the respect the brand and who owns the rights to it, maybe put some cash in. Yeah, that's what you want, Jason. That's what you want, is you want the media who pay to get access. That's a really good way to have like a system. Let's make it to where the only people that get any access at all in the media are people who pay.

Yeah, well, let's put that in a different context. Yeah, I think you'd probably really like it if NBC. paid Joe Biden for access to the White House. Wouldn't that be good? And the entities that didn't pay them couldn't get in? Oh, wait, maybe that's happening right now. But, like, is that what you would want? That's not what you want.

This is a public university. Also, in the former model, Ron Lemon was losing so much money on the King of Card, game, remember of Club Blue? Yeah, he's giving a lot. So, KSR was giving a lot of money. King of hearts. King of hearts. He's not,

he didn't do that every night. You don't want that. You really want that? Because also, if I'm in partnership with UK, I'm just going to say what they want. I think a lot of people, Shannon, just want to be lied to. Oh, I'm sure.

Just lie to me. Tell me what makes me feel better. Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I want to hear. Because I don't like to hear things that don't make me feel good. There's a lot of people like that in a lot of realms. Unfortunately. How much would I have to pay for them to let me come inside when it's raining after a game?

Impossible. Dang. It does make for good video. Yeah. But you made that work. You getting kicked out of the games. You made it work. Numbers went up. Hall monitor.

Alan, go ahead, Alan. Hey, guys. This is Alan from St. Louis, not Cutler. I don't want to have any beef of Shannon. I'm a fan of it. So let's just start off with that. I was just wondering, the UK Athletics Department forming the LLC. a few weeks back. Do you think that's factored into that decision with this?

Yeah, of course. I mean, this was, this was announced at the first meeting of that LLC, right? So clearly, yeah, clearly it had something to do with it. I'm not like a high level corporate lawyers. So I'm not sure what the tax implications, but for certain that had something to do with it. Were you surprised that Nike gave us a deal that was of lesser value than some of the other schools? No, because we're not, because we're not a football. school and the money's in football. So, no, I actually think what Kentucky gets from Nike is kind of amazing,

considering that we're not a football school. I have to think that Kentucky and Duke are by far the schools that get the most that are basketball primary schools. And Duke is almost a national brand. Kentucky is too, but Duke is even more so. Plus Duke has a very rich alumni base. But, yeah, I'm not surprised. You know, just think about it like this.

Think about how many people are at a Tennessee football game. 100,000 people, right? Think about all the stuff they're buying when they're there. Take the biggest Kentucky basketball game and it's 21,000 people. I mean, it's just a sheer numbers game at some point, Alan. Gotcha. That's pretty. Yeah, appreciate the call.

I mean, generally, the football schools, it's always going to be the biggest thing. That's why when we were talking about Ohio State getting more, it's just the football brand just carries that. You can't compare yourself. And just a population thing. Like what's the population of Texas and Ohio versus Kentucky? I mean, Texas's probably got four or five times as many people.

Ohio's probably got three times as many people. So, I mean, I think that's... And having gone to that Texas game last year, my goodness, that's a different sport there. Yeah. Anyone knows that Austin knows. Texas has a very wealthy alumni base, very wealthy. So I think Ohio State, I mean, I would say Kentucky. I mean, we're not the least wealthy alumni base, but against a lot of our competition,

we probably aren't the highest wealth alumni base. So in our state, I mean, we're, we don't have the money in our state that other states do. It's just, it's just the fact. Sam, go ahead, Sam. Hey, Matt, I just wanted to call because I feel like I have the solution to the NCAA tournament. I know that they keep wanting to raise the number of teams that are in. feel like that's going to make it worse and worse and worse. I think that they should go to the model that they use for basketball, or

mean for baseball, for basketball. So go into the quad system. You have double eliminations to get to the Sweet 16. And then that means that the Kentucky's the Dukes of the World that are playing, if they lose a game, they still have a chance to go back. It's double elimination. I mean, I love that. That means they get more money.

They get more money. I love that. That's the reason why we want to expand it. You know what I mean? of the day, I agree with you. I think it would make some sense to, like, go double elimination in the final four or something like that. In the early rounds, the NCAA tournament needs Oakland beating Kentucky. They just did. That's true. But at the same time, like, you don't, you, you, you want them, they, they would still be able to beat them, you know what I mean? But it just doesn't

knock them out. But it won't matter. It's not as big a deal. Winning one out of the three, they get another chance to play another game. Winning one out of the three is not enough. Like, they got to beat us. I do think going to the double elimination to the final four would be good. But the magic of the NCAA tournament is Oakland over Kentucky. And you can't lose that, I don't think. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

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Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff

nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicel Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes. coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale,

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